Tom Holland Did Improvised Flips For His Spider-Man Audition

Tom Holland improvised with real flips during his audition to play Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. By now, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is well-known since he’s appeared in multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, including Infinity War and Endgame, as well as his solo trilogy of Spider-Man movies. His latest entry, 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, in which a multiversal rift sees him team up with Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parkers to fight villains from previous universes, made so much at the domestic box office that it toppled Avatar‘s record-breaking gross.

But before he was a box office juggernaut, Tom Holland made his MCU debut as Spider-Man in a surprise appearance during the airport fight sequence in 2016’s Civil War. Rather than introducing him in his own origin story film, the movie saw Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark recruit an already spider-powered Parker to join him on his side as a schism split the Avengers. Before taking on Spider-Man, Holland’s biggest onscreen credit was in a minor role opposite Chris Hemsworth in the seafaring drama In the Heart of the Sea.

On the YouTube channel Corridor Crew, Marvel stuntmen James Young and Gui DaSilva-Greene sat down to discuss some of the most iconic MCU moments that they worked on. Young reveals that he was the stunt person in charge of the auditions for Spider-Man and was blown away when Holland started doing flips on the “air track” they had set up in the rehearsal space. When Holland asked if he could do flips in his audition, Young told him no, because “if you flip and fall, that’s my career.” However, Holland asked for permission again during the audition itself and executed “the most perfect side flip,” causing the studio execs’ jaws to drop. Check out the full story below:

I was the one in Tom’s audition. There was something about him when he walked in. And he walks into our training space, and we’ve got all our cardboard boxes up where we shoot our previz-es. And at the time we had an air track. An air track is the bouncy little floor that you can do flips on, and Tom looks over at this air track and goes, “Hey, do you mind if I go flip?”

I was like, “Whoa… Absolutely not. I don’t know if-“

And he goes, “No, I can flip, I swear.”And Tom proceeded to do front flash, like a repertoire of the really good basic flips, side flip, front flip, round off flash…. and I’m like oh sh*t, he’s good.

He goes “Cool… So tomorrow in the audition, do you it’d be OK if I flip?”

And I was like, “Dude, listen. If you flip and fall, that’s my career. I can’t have you do that. But you are auditioning for Spider-Man. I’ll see you later.” Literally.

So what they did is they had the actors come in in the Spidey underwear suit, the one he wears in the first movie. They did this whole sequence of the “Hey, that shield doesn’t obey the laws of physics at all,” they did the whole thing… with Chris [Evans]. Chris came in on his day off.

Tom goes, “Hey Joe would you mind if I take my own entrance?” And I just feel Kevin [Feige,] Joe [Russo], and all of them just [look] to me, and I [shrug.] And Tom Holland proceeds to skip in and throw the most perfect side flip, literally straight past Chris Evans, lands on his mark, goes “Hey Cap how you doin’?” spins round, goes, “You like my suit?”

All you heard was jaws… [dropping]. I got goosebumps and tears in my eyes And I even think Joe was like holy f**k. This kid just came in and just… That’s Peter Parker. There’s no other way about it. So, to see him come in and do that and literally leave the heads of studios with their mouth on the floor, it was one of the most special things I’ve ever witnessed.

It makes sense that Holland would have been confident about his acrobatic ability at the time. He was a seasoned stage performer and dancer, having performed the title role in Billy Elliot as a young man. That background was certainly key to helping him stand out among the crowd of other actors.

When it was announced he had been cast as Spider-Man for Captain America: Civil War, most people had never heard of Tom Holland. That has certainly changed, as he parlayed his charisma and physical prowess into becoming one of the MCU’s most beloved heroes. It is still unknown whether or not he will be officially returning to the role of Peter Parker, but at this point, it will be quite difficult for the fans to let him go.

Source: Corridor Crew

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